small-time

small time

1. adjective Of only minor or modest importance, achievement, or influence. Hyphenated if used before a noun. I'm only small time, so the IRS doesn't give me too much grief. There are a lot of small-time actors here, but a few are really big deals.
2. noun A level minor or modest importance, achievement, or influence. This is your chance to bring your business out of the small time and find some real success.
See also: small, time
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

small-time

mod. insignificant; petty. Bart was involved in a lot of small-time crime when he was twelve.
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • dooper
  • duper
  • double or nothing
  • a round robin
  • round robin
  • eleventh hour
  • heads I win, tails you lose
  • bleeding edge
  • black market
  • a light touch
References in periodicals archive
He reasoned out that allowing plea bargaining for such offenders would help unclog small-time drug cases pending in courts, which he said, burdens the country's criminal justice system.
The decision, after two years of dilly-dallying, to remain at and redevelop Anfield was a small-time, mid-table decision.
Once Azor learns that Riva is in possession of the fuel, he plots to use Nora to double-cross his small-time rival.
The index fell by more than that level in the first hour-and-a-half of trading, led by panicked small-time investors, analysts said, and the market was closed.
Meanwhile, 22 people were arrested in swoops by Central Scotland Police on small-time dealers in Clackmannanshire and Stirlingshire.
The insanely harsh sentence given to small-time marijuana dealer Weldon Angelos ("The Dope Dealer Who Got 55 Years," by Sasha Abramsky, June issue) is simply an extreme manifestation of a policy that long ago lost all connection with reality.
In June 2002, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, a small-time Jordanian thug who aspired to become a terrorist leader, was comfortably embedded in Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq, an area not under Saddam Hussein's control.
The Apocalypse Parable: A Conspiracy Of Weeds by Brian Kaufman is an original, engaging and complex suspense novel depicting the life of a wealthy man, Mordecai Ryan and his pursuit of Jesus Christ the services of Daniel Bain, a small-time private investigator for missing persons.
The move would allow police and other law enforcement agencies to target small-time criminals as well as the "Mr Bigs" of the criminal world.
Mr Clarke said: "Reducing the threshold so officers can seize cash stashes of at least pounds 1,000 will allow the police to target drug dealers and other small-time criminals whose activities destroy lives and blight communities.
Tony Blair today pledged to make the lives of small-time drug dealers more difficult as he unveiled new police powers to seize criminals assets.
* Small-time crooks slash bags to steal details then sell documents to organised crime gangs for as much as pounds 20.
Unfortunately, all the clues say that small-time hood Eel O'Brien is the culprit, and Plastic Man's new partner, blonde bombshell Agent Morgan, is determined to bring O'Brien down.
Under state law, most small-time producers of value-added agricultural products are already considered exempt farms.
How small-time scams and petty crimes committed by terrorist sympathizers in the United States help their cause.